Final Update: Congratulations to Renan Cavalheiro for his success in multiple categories! It is a testament to his work, and acknowledgement from the DFIR professionals of the impact he has.

Update: I’m a Finalist!

I asked and you all delivered. I am a finalist for Forensic 4:cast Awards’ #DFIR Newcomer of the Year!

I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude to be among others who were nominated for their contributions in 2022 and could not have done it without the help of my colleagues and other DFIR professionals. Thank you!

The vote for finalists is open. Please consider voting for me, Derek Eiri, for Forensic 4:cast Awards’ DFIR Newcomer of the Year. The winner will be announced at the SANS DFIR Summit in August.

Vote here!

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Nomination Pitch

For your consideration, please nominate me, Derek Eiri, for Forensic 4:cast Awards‘ DFIR Newcomer of the Year of 2022.

Criteria:

Any individual that is new to the field of DFIR that made an impact in the prior year.

I most certainly qualify as rookie. Whether or not if I made an impact, be it inspiration or as a resource, is up to you.

I started my DFIR journey in 2018. After learning from a handful of books and other digital forensic resources, I landed my first DFIR role in 2019. I made considerable progress since. I attribute my progress, in part, to reflective writing. In the DFIR community, Harlan Carvey regularly champions elements of reflective writing and recently blogged about the value in the how and why.

In 2022, I wrote 21 posts on the blog, several of which explored features in forensic software, courses I’ve taken, and experiments. Below are a few of my favorites from 2022:

• Assembling a Go-Bag, Re: Write Block Options?
• Exploring OCR Capability (Tesseract) with X-Ways Forensics
• Growing with X-Ways Forensics

I even contributed to Brett Shaver’s 2nd edition of X-Ways Forensics Practitioner’s Guide.

Out of several others who may be worthy of a nomination for Forensic 4:cast Awards’ DFIR Newcomer of the Year, please consider me. If not me, please go nominate that someone so they may be recognized! The real value in this process is bringing attention to the exceptional work being done everywhere else. On that note, I offer my nomination recommendations for four individuals that I perceive as exceptional in 2022.

What is your nomination for DFIR Web Show of the Year (this is a podcast, YouTube channel or live stream)?

BlueMonkey4n6. Among several YouTube videos I benefited from in 2022 are by BlueMonkey4n6. In particular, BlueMonkey4n6 did a video on SSD serial numbers and on creating a mulitboot USB with Ventoy. BlueMonkey4n6 also has a series on using CAINE that I recently started to watch.

Who is your nomination for DFIR Mentor of the Year?

Brett Shavers. Shaver’s collection of blog posts, books, and recorded classes have been extremely influential in my development as a digital forensic analyst; he also inspired me to start this blog. I’m also very gracious to be able to contribute to the 2nd edition of X-Ways Forensics Practitioner’s Guide.

Who is your nomination for DFIR Social Media Contributor of the Year?

Alexis Brignoni, Certified Digital Forensics Memer. While I know Brignoni for developing the LEAPPs with the open-source community, I was primarily engaged with his humor as it relates to DFIR throughout 2022.

What is your nomination for DFIR Blog of the Year?

Lina Lau, InverseCos. Lau authored several detailed, but accessible, technical blog posts on investigating threat actors in 2022. Lau’s new company, XINTRA, and her course, Attacking and Defending Azure & M365, may be of interest.

If you’re interested in learning more about Forensic 4:cast Awards’ background, I found the two resources below helpful:

• Forensic 4:cast Q&A with Lee Whitfield
• 3 Minutes Max with Kevin Ripa, Forensic 4:cast Awards

That’s the end of my pitch. Thank you very much for your consideration!